The concept of sod harvesting is old in the art. Typically, a sod slab is cut free from a sod field and then rolled up into a cylindrical sod roll. Sod rolls are then transferred to a pallet by a sod roll pickup mechanism. Once a group of sod rolls are transferred to a pallet, the pallet is then transported to a delivery truck or the like to ship the sod rolls to a desired destination.
Numerous devices for mechanizing the sod harvesting and delivery process are also known in the art. Such devices typically comprise a tractor-like vehicle modified with apparatus for cutting free slabs of sod from a sod field as the tractor is driven through a sod field, rolling the sod slabs into cylindrical sod rolls, accumulating a plurality of sod rolls in a queue, and transferring the queue of sod rolls to a sod carrier. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,063 to Tvetene et al., hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses an automatic sod harvester. As shown in FIG. 1, the sod harvester of the '063 patent includes a cutting mechanism 11 for freeing a section of sod from a sod field, a sod roller 12 for rolling the section of sod into a sod roll, a sod roll accumulator 13 having sod troughs therein for receiving and holding sod rolls therein, a sod roll pickup mechanism 14 for lifting the sod roll onto the sod roll accumulator 13 and transferring the sod roll to a sod roll carrier 15a for delivery of the sod roll.
As can be seen from the sod harvester disclosed in the '063 patent and illustrated in FIG. 1, devices for mechanizing sod harvesting are typically very large. The large sod harvesters are therefore difficult to transport, such as when shipping a sod harvester to a customer. Normally the sod harvesters are loaded in larger containers to protect the sod harvester from damage during shipping, and consequently the containers must be as large as the sod harvester. The larger the container, the fewer containers can be shipped on a single flat bed truck, freighter or the like, thereby increasing shipping costs. Alternatively, the containers are a pre-set size, and if the sod harvester is larger than the container, the sod harvester cannot be shipped in the container, which leads to further increases in shipping costs.
Accordingly, a need exists for a sod harvester that is compact or may be made compact for ease of transportation without sacrificing any of the functionality of the sod harvester.